Remote management systems are currently being deployed in various environments. For example, utilities companies have started deploying smart meters (e.g., water, gas, and electric meters) that monitor resource usage and communicate with remote monitoring collection systems (e.g., wirelessly via a mobile network). Smart meters and other remote management devices typically allow a remote operator to control, monitor, or otherwise affect such devices and the managed resource or service. For example, many smart meters include functionality for disconnecting or interrupting service remotely.
Remote management can have significant advantages over on-site management. For example, remote management saves providers the expense of periodic trips to each physical location to gather information (e.g., by reading a meter). As such, billing can be based on near real-time consumption rather than on estimates based on previous or predicted consumption. Further, remote management can efficiently and quickly allow providers or operators to control and provision such devices, e.g., if a problem arises or if new service is requested. Thus, remote management may efficiently be utilized for billing, troubleshooting, analyzing, and planning purposes.
While using communications networks for remote management has some advantages over on-site management, problems can arise when one or more entities attempt fraudulent and/or malicious actions involving remote management functionality. For example, where smart meters use a communications network to communicate with a collection system in a smart grid environment, an attacker may spoof or clone valid meters in an attempt to affect service, billing, and/or the underlying communications network. In the above example, an attack involving the monitored service may intentionally or inadvertently overload or flood the communications network with messages, such as during a denial of service (DoS) attack. If the communications network is flooded, additional services (e.g., calls) and users (e.g., mobile phone subscribers) of the communications network may be affected. Thus, to prevent service blackouts and/or communications network failures, it is important to safeguard such networks and services from fraudulent and/or malicious activity.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for detecting and mitigating fraud in a distributed monitoring system that includes fixed-location monitoring devices.